1897 public laws – Ch. 414 Sec. 1

That the name of the institution known at present as The Scotland Neck training and industrial school, shall be hereafter known as the same, and that Wm. E. Evans C. C. Baker, Hunter Hight, C. P. Anthony, Tom Shields, Steward Hardy, Wm. E. Boyd, Thad. Shields, Isaac Evans, G.1. Hill, Isham Smith, Wade Smith, Jr., Henry Reynolds and Jno. Smith, and their associates and successors in office, be and they are hereby created and constituted a body politic and corporate by the name and style of Trustees of the Scotland Neck training and industrial school, an institution of learning situated at Scotland Neck, in Halifax county, in the state of North Carolina, and as such and by said name of such institution as aforesaid shall be impleaded, to use a common seal and make such by-laws and regulations and rules as they, the said trustees and their successors, may deem best, not inconsistent with the laws of the United States or the state of North Carolina.